MUTALE MOCKS LUNGU

By NOEL IYOMBWA

FORMER President Edgar Chagwa Lungu should not call himself a top notch lawyer because he at one time misled his entire Cabinet to stay in office after the dissolution of Parliament against the Constitution which he swore to uphold, Ndola based Democracy Advocate Fabian Mutale has charged.

In an interview, Mr. Mutale said the former Head of State led his entire Cabinet into believing that they could continue staying in office after the dissolution of Parliament, a decision that was overruled by the courts of law in Zambia.

He was reacting to a statement attributed to Mr. Lungu who bragged to the Voice of America that he is a top notch lawyer.

Mr. Mutale, who has been critical of Mr. Lungu’s comeback to politics, further said the former president had an opportunity to put away archaic legal provisions but because they favoured him while he was in office, he turned a blind eye to them and wondered why he was now crying about the same provisions with which he used to gag the opposition.

“Mr. Lungu as a lawyer had a golden opportunity to give the Zambians a refined and lacuna-free constitution but because of his selfishness at the time, he couldn’t change laws that he felt would disadvantage him. Right now he is crying foul in reference to constitutional provisions that seem to hinder his movement anyhow,” Mr. Mutale said.

He further appealed to the former President to leave the stage when at least there were people who were still clapping for him.

Mr. Lungu is undergoing perilous times as his family has been hit with investigations over its source of wealth since most of his family members were not working at the time of his presidency and even for those who were working, it is believed the wealth they had accumulated is inversely proportion to their earnings.

However, the former Head of State has justified his children and wife’s wealth to his work as a top notch lawyer and that he gave money to his family to do business.

Recently, Mr. Lungu accused the Government of mistreating his family members despite knowing that he was the one who helped them acquire properties.